Task One, Martha Graham

Task One: take a body of work from an artist and relate it to notions of knowledge, certainty, and positivism. 

For this first task I chose to look at the work of Martha Graham. Graham technique is something I have dabbled in a few times throughout my early 20's and early 30's and over the Winter Holiday I decided to complete the teacher training workshop via zoom from the Martha Graham School in NYC. It was a lot to take on while on break from the MA but it was really incredible and I was so grateful for the time moving my body and relating it to what I had been reading for a few months prior. 

One thing that I love about Graham technique is the use of imagery, the explanation of breath, and the simplicity of the theory yet the difficulty of the execution. Martha's technique was built on "the simplest movements walking, running, skipping, leaping" (Bannerman, 2010, p.3), and the reference to the spine is often correlated to a tree or more specifically a tree of life (Bannerman, 2010). All of the technical elements are based on only a few key principles: contraction, release, articulation of the spine, gravity, spiral, and breath ( Bannerman, 2010),  and "is simply both her invention of a new dance language and her redefinition of dance as a mirror of inner reality" (Kisselgoff, 1988, para 7) that really defines this artistically and physically challenging pedagogy. 

I personally find Graham technique to promote questions from the audience and authentic exploration from the dancer. It is something that you really must feel in your body and soul (for me an embodied form of dance) and not something that you could inherently copy or mirror however some argue that because it is codified, there is a result-driven process to aesthetic imagery, and there are specifics movements within the framework that it could not then be somatic but rather is more a technique pedagogy (Bannerman, 2010). However, we know that the technique was based on an approach that pulled from primal movements and Bannerman argues that "a full embodiment of Graham-based dance prevents any tendency for the external shape and design of these signature movements to override the internal physiological processes that drive them" (2010, p.6). For me personally, learning for hours on zoom from the school was in some parts challenging but in others, it was delivered in such a way that we weren't always mirroring those in the studio but rather learning an exercise with them and then deconstructing that movement pattern and expressing what that felt like within our bodies or how we could use imagery or breath to better teach it to our students. Bannon argues that "the challenge is to formulate modes of inquiry and assessment that address the learning that is achieved during the process rather than as a result of the process" (p.9), and using this argument I would say that the teachings I received were very thoughtful and providing ample room for individual exploration within the framework. It was evident that Virginie Mécènene was a masterful teacher of the technique but truly lived and breathed the teaching of Martha Graham from how she lived her life, the words she spoke, and the way in which she moved. She embodied this work and pedagogy in a way that I have never witnessed anyone embody someone else's work. The knowledge that she had gained from decades of studying with Martha and from others within the institution permeated her being, and it was an incredible example of not just knowledge but of knowing. 

From the various books and texts I have read (not all outlined here) about Martha Graham, I would argue that her pedagogy and work could be viewed both as positivist and non-positivist (is that allowed?). From the positivist viewpoint you could argue that there is a set of rules and regulations within the framework, that choreography (up until the last few years) was never changed, that it was designed for the female body specifically the female pelvis and when male bodies were introduced the structure was not altered or changed for those new shapes. The movement associated with natural rhythms of breath, the use of gravity as dancers discovered their weight and how to use it, and the approach of imagery and internal artistry first would frame this in a non-positivist light. When examining her work and moving within her work I feel that it is quite a somatic and embodied experience, however, reading the literature, and specifically, Bannerman who reviewed many other articles within their own, it would seem that the jury is out on whether or not this codified approach results in any somatic response from a theoretical approach. 

I would be interested to hear about your own experience with the Graham technique or what your thoughts are on whether something is codified or not does that then make it inherently not a somatic approach as argued by Bannerman and others?

Video: teacher training via zoom during Winter Holidays.

Bibliography: 

Bannerman. (2010). A question of somatics the search for a common framework for twenty-first-century contemporary dance pedagogy: Graham and Release-based techniques. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp.2.1.5_1

Bannon. (2000). Experience Every Moment: aesthetically significant dance education. Research in Dance Education., 1(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/info:doi/

Kisselgoff, A. (1988, Oct 21). Dance: Graham, With Stars: [Review]. New York Times https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/dance-graham-with-stars/docview/426619962/se-2